Unrelated Charges
by ROSSELLA1
Summary: Aaron Hotchner is called in to identify a criminal.


Unrelated Charges

By ROSSELLA1 

Betad by kisaitaluvr

Note: I do not own Criminal Minds or any of its characters. 

It was Thursday morning and Hotch had just walked through the doors and into the bullpen, when his phone beeped. Pulling it out, he gave it a glance, just JJ. 'Probably a case' he thought. He'd be briefed in the Conference room in just a few minutes; no need to check the message. Continuing on, he entered his office, set down his brief case, and was about to head out when his phone rang. JJ again. Annoyed, he shoved the phone back into his pocket and doubled his pace. What was so important that it couldn't wait five minutes? It wasn't like they could leave for a case before the whole team had been briefed. He turned the corner and almost ran smack into the woman in question.

"Hotch!" She exclaimed, pulling back and straightening the papers she was carrying, that had been jolted by the sudden stop.

"JJ. I-"

"Didn't you get my messages? I've been trying to reach you for-"

"I did." He cut her off. "But I was already headed to the Conference room, so I thought it could wait," He paused, "Unless… it's something we need to deal with right away?"

"We do." She answered abruptly. "Pleasantsville, just a couple towns over, requested our help."

"With what?"

"They didn't go into a lot of details, they just said it was urgent."

"Well, did you tell them that they have to submit the case so we can review it?" Honestly, JJ should know better than anyone that there were steps these things had to go through before they could even take a look at them.

"I did, but they're very insistent and it's … not exactly a case."

"Then what is it?" Of course the reason they existed was so that they could help, but that didn't mean they could be at the beck and call of just anyone!

She took a deep breath. "They want our help identifying someone."

"What?"

"There's a man they've caught but they haven't been able to pin the crime on him. They think he bears a certain similarity to a criminal that got away? They didn't say who."

"Well why don't they just run the prints through the system and see if it turns up a hit?" This was starting to get extremely aggravating.

"They tried," JJ sighed, "But he wouldn't let them. He kept fighting the guards. Look," She continued with a shake of her head, "They say that he's getting someone to post bail soon and they're running out of things to stall with. They just want one of us to go identify him so they have something to hold him on. They're worried that if they let him out he'll run."

"Alright," Hotch said, running his hand over his face. "I'll take a ride over there, no reason to send the whole team. Call me if there's a case."

…..

The ride over took him little more than a half hour, the town being so close, and soon enough he was walking through the front doors of the police station. He glanced around, looking for someone to address, but didn't have to wait long. A plump, middle aged man with a genial looking face approached him with his hand outstretched. "You're with the FBI, right? Chief Reddman."

"I'm SSA Aaron Hotchner, it's a pleasure." Hotch replied curtly, "Look, seeing as this is a bit unorthodox, I'd appreciate it if we could start right away."

"Of course. Right this way." The man gestured down a hall and they started to walk. "We've got him in here," he continued opening a door, revealing a small holding cell.

For a moment Hotch and the man contained in the cell just stared at each other then. "Oh, Shit!" The man cursed, realizing that his hopes of brushing this off and moving on had left the room the moment Hotch had entered.

"Well?" The Chief prompted. "Isn't he the Boston Reaper?"

"Yeah," Hotch said, finally, giving his head a small shake in disbelief. "That's… that's George Foyet." He turned to Reddman. "Thank you. Excuse me for a moment; I need to call my team." He stepped to the side and dialed JJ's . "JJ?" he said when she answered. "I think you and the rest of the team should come down here…. Yeah, everything's fine, I'll explain when you get here." He hung up and turned back to Reddman. "Just one thing…"

"Shoot."

"Agent Jareau never explained: How did you catch him?"

"Well, he was working as a substitute in the Pleasantsville school district and then he got caught having an inappropriate relationship with a sixteen year old girl. He was fired, of course, but the parents wanted to charge him with statutory so we arrested him. We thought he looked familiar…"


End file.
